Switched Tables
by HeroineCruor
Summary: After Dib comes home from rehab, he is uncharacteristic and believe the paranormal is fake. Gaz, the only one knowing about the obvious alien features of Zim, decides to leave her passive life and tries to stop the alien herself in his plans. All the while, Dib learns how to play a GameSlave...slight Foe Yay ZaGr. Rated T for mental hospital concept and slight gore.
1. Taken Away

**A/N: I've had this idea for 8 months. I can't stop thinking about it. So now, I'm finally writing it.**

**It will be a** **little angsty, dark and such, so no much comedy in this one.**

**Gaz is a bit OOC, but I'm trying to dig up her real feelings in this fanfiction, her platonic love for Dib. So it sort of has DaGf :)**

**I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

She could only tremble and feel the darkness of the world as she lay there on her bed. Both literally and not; it as night, but the hollow pit in her stomach blackened the world around her.

The dried tears that had run down. The big sweater she was wearing as the only safety blanket she had left.

She bit her lip, not wanting to remember. She could have done something. She should have done something! But...but she didn't.

This was the first time in her life she ever experienced this emotion. Guilt. It sometimes washed over her like a hardcore sprinkler, but mostly like a flood. It was unstoppable, just like an avalanche.

She aimlessly trailed her eyes at the security devices around, in any case Dib would've had come in to disturb her. Right now she wanted nothing more but to tear all the damn trash down like a caveman. It was making her ballistic.

Yet the weakness of her body refused to cooperate, as the brain, so nothing happened. The only thing she could manage was sniffling.

It was all her fault. It didn't matter if dad told her otherwise, because she knew he would only say it to calm her. Instead it seemed to strengthen her guilt.

The insomnia haunted her like a ghost. How could she even think of sleeping when nothing was alright? When she even remembered the look on his face when he was taken away...she couldn't stand it. It would make her breathe shakily and shed a few more tears; whatever was left of it.

The blanket was clutched tighter. Abnormally enough, she wasn't laying by her pillow, rather in the center of her bed and was curling up into a hedgehog under the multiple layers of blankets. The window was open; it made her cold. Open for no reason whatsoever. If a huge two-headed monster bat came from the under realm to take her away, be that way.

She noted the GameSlave by the nightstand. She wanted nothing more but to crush it to pieces and throw it away, just so it could be out of her sight. It didn't help to hide it, since the knowledge of it's existence would be there.

Yet her body was struck to the matress, so she didn't bother doing anything about it.

The itching on every pore of her being, but still couldn't do anything, it was driving her crazy. And all because of that...

* * *

_"I'm sorry, son, but this is for your best." The normally joyful voice from the professor stated, as though there was nothing truer than his words. Gaz was grossly against the fact; but didn't say anything so not to upset anyone further._

_"But...but...he's an alien! You have to believe me! I'm not crazy!" Dib shouted out in a desperate tone, frantically trying to rip himself away from the nurses who was trying to put on a straitjacket on him. As he violently tried to shake them away and kicked with all his might, a nurse ran up with a large-sized syringe. She inserted it on the spot right in the middle of his arm._

_"I'm telling you, I swear, I'm not...!" Then his eyes went shut and his body fell limp like a dead flower. The word "crazy" or "mad" never had time to be mouthed out._

_"Son, I'm sorry I have to do this...but I'm worried about your health. This obsession is unnatural." Membrane spoke, as he locked his hands together and stood there as if he awaited a reply. If he did, too bad, because they had already brought Dib into the van that drove patients to the mental hospital._

_Gaz wanted to say something about this. She did love her brother, even though she could go nuts over his paranormal rambling. This was such an unusual issue, that she didn't even bring her GameSlave for this. So uncharacteristic of her, yet still not if they really knew about her soft spot inside._

_Without thinking, she gently tugged at her father's lab coat, the same blank expression plastered on her face, but the inner Gaz was crying and screaming. The inner Gaz wouldn't allow this. The inner Gaz wanted to see her brother and hug him. But as usual, the outside Gaz always won, so she had the upper hand and had only called out one word to her brother during the whole scenario: "Whiner"._

_The professor turned and looked down at his daughter with his goggles._

_"Yes, honey?" He asked, as if she was interrupting something. Then her eyebrows knotted together in hesitation. Should she really ruin her image by showing her concern for Dib? As her thoughts stapled up fast through her head, and quickly came to a conclusion, she stood there staring a few seconds before shaking her head doubtfully._

_"No", she said with a deep, dark voice, "It's nothing." She knew she had done the right thing, but it still didn't change the fact that guilt devoured her after that line, and made her shudder of immorality. The force had gone to her. Now she couldn't take it back. She was so mentally weak, that she couldn't even stand up for her own brother when she deep down loved him really much._

_She quickly turned around, so her dad wouldn't see the tears that could be running down her face any minute now._

* * *

Eventually, she did fall asleep, but not without the nightmares haunting her and the pleading face of Dib, and this illusion over and over telling her to help him. She reached out to the image beyond belief, but grabbed only air.

These nightmares made her wake up in cold sweat.

The same thing repeating in her head overnight, as she worriedly shifted and turned in her bed to find a softer spot to sleep on. Nothing worked, no matter what she did. She even got a glass of water and it didn't help. She even went as far as to take one of Dib's blank-faced smiley shirts and sleep with them to still feel the smell of him, and it didn't help more or less.

The nightmares didn't even leave her as she walked off to school. They followed her around like a stalker. They taunted her and pointed their tongue at her; even flipping the bird.

The worst feeling was that she knew she couldn't do anything about it.

* * *

**A/N: Please tell me what you think! Should I continue? Should I not? Please review! :)**


	2. Mental Instability?

**A/N: I'm back, babeh! And yes, I'm not dead! YAHOOOOO-oh-*cough* Or am I? Heehee, no don't worry, I'm not a zombie :3 I saw some people followed and I love you guys for paying attention to my shitty writing! Your reviews will help me improve and that's a P! :)**

**I've been more motivated to write since I got an A in a science test in school ^^ Dib Y U NO FOLLOW REAL SCIENCE?! Anywayzzz...**

**Enjoy, if you don't, then...I dunno...**

* * *

His eyes scanned the room; his gaze full of hostility to every living form out there.

Every living form who jumped to conclusions and thought he was a bad case nutjob.

How dared they?

He just now sat there with a face mask, a freaking straitjacket and a furious, macabre expression as he steamed over the unfair diagnosis. Now he sat there and thought how they dared. How dare they judge him? He has been right about many things; electronic spells, Mortos der Soul Stealer to name a few examples.

But now as they saw him with these mental gear on him they seemed more clear on the matter. That his scythe shaped hair suits with it. That his big head suits with it. That...

...the eternal accusations at Zim suits with it.

The entire thought of humanity being retarded and he obviously not seeing the obvious alien features of that cocky, naïve alien; it made his respect stoop lower. It all had given him the case of hypnophobia. He refused to sleep and the body did as well. Every night his heart would race hundreds of beats per minute, he would start to sweat and the horrendeous nightmare visions would never stop. The nightmares visions of Zim's success, the visions of him killing his family- scratch that, his sister (he would forever grudge his dad for putting him in this bloody asylum), and so the visions goes on. It drove him crazy and the doctors thought it was something within his diagnosis; giving him further reason to despise the human race.

Pff. Why was he bothering trying to save everyone, all day; everyday? They never thanked him. Ok, he didn't exactly require that they would give him the alien killer crown or a million bucks, but at least a little "Thank you" would be enough for him to make his day.

But no, their pride and idiocy couldn't even afford one.

They didn't give two fucks no matter what he did.

Idiots. Morons. Bastards. Bitches. Shitheads. Fu-

He slammed his head against the floor, his body falling flat against it as the scythe of his hair sprawled across the floor; his eyes still glaring at the dark.

Stupid dark. Stupid humanity. Stupid Earth. He swore, if-WHEN he gets out of here...

They would see who wouldn't save them from danger. They would see who would completely ignore them when Zim would kill them off with lazers. They would see who wouldn't care when Zim would rip out their hearts.

He. Wouldn't. Give. A. Damn.

He wouldn't even care if Zim killed him too; he was originally part of the human race as well, and it didn't mean he hated everyone and loved himself. He hated himself. He hated himself for being an idiot and a paranormal nutjob.

He would give up on this stupid hobby.

It was pathetic.

As fast as he got home, he would start over. Screw his paranormal notes, screw his devices, screw humanity, screw Gaz, screw dad, screw Zim.

SCREW EVERY LIFEFORM.

He shifted around with the cheek pressed against the floor. 2 years from that Zim arrived here, and he still hadn't caught him. It was not worth trying anymore. It was not worth his time. As his thoughts processed, he was more determined than ever to make his foolish acts a thing of the past.

The somniphobia stayed with him until the morning. He knew it wouldn't leave anytime soon.

* * *

"Hello, human."

Gaz didn't look up from her GameSlave. She was sitting in the skool cafeteria and the last thing she wanted was to converse with her brother's nemesis. She didn't bother to eat, all she wanted was to reach level 613 in her game.

Besides, it was partly his fault.

As she still felt his presence right beside her, her eyebrows formed her face into a glare and retorted in the darkest voice she could muster.

"If you want your innards unharmed; go away." The last word was combined with a swift click of the down button, still keeping the same face. Noting too, that the click of the buttons were becoming harsher each second.

She nearly had a game over when she heard the stupid alien cackle. Luckily she didn't, but still would destroy him later for almost losing.

"You think a weak human pig like you is scaring me? Irken's organs are far more superior than that of human's! We only need three, and you have..." He trailed off, staring down at his claws to count. He held up a finger each organ he counted, and then he came up with the answer he figured.

"Ermm...56." He said poudly, standing in a contemptuous pose as he glared down at the human female.

She sighed as she massacred 4 more pigs in the move.

"No, we have 78."

"YOU LIE!"

She tried to make the deepest sigh she had ever done in her life, only nearly making her choke on the game. When would this retard shut up? She couldn't believe she was doing this, and would never forgive herself for doing this in the future. But she paused the game, closed it down and gave the disguised Irken a deadly glare; along with clutched fists.

"You realize that I'm going to destroy you, right?" She cued, Zim not moving an inch.

"Pfft." He said, waving his hand in rejection. "That's what they all say. Tak, Sizzlorr, oh, and yes, the pathetic stink-head you call your brother."

"He's not pathetic. He's sane." She quietly stated, pretty much refusing to admit to herself that she was being defensive, for her brother, no less! If he said anymore cruel about him, she knew, that her movements would respond with a punch.

Surprisingly enough, that even made Gaz lower her fist to her side, was that Zim decided to dismiss, and stop bothering her anymore.

"Whatever, human. I was just going to ask where he is, but now I realize I don't need your inferior help. So long, pig." He walked off, and she even watched with her squinted eyes as he exited to the corridor.

Stupid Zim. Stupid retard. Stupid pain in the ass.

She was so mad at it all she didn't even feel like resuming to her game.

Her thoughts drifted back to Dib, and her expression shifted into emptiness. What were they doing to him? She had barely studied the treatments in a mental hospital and wasn't quite sure what kind of tests patients went through. Was he being hypnotized? Was he sleeping? Were they trying to convince him with showing him pictures of vampires, ghosts etc. to make him realize how naïve it was to believe those existed?

A thought struck her like a thunderbolt. Was she actually confirming that Dib's theories were right? Was she becoming like the "insane" boy? Scarely enough, she concluded it with a 'maybe'. Worse that she didn't care.

Gaz jumped off her seat. Next class were about to start in a few minutes and she didn't want anymore detention from Mr. Elliot because of the constant gameplaying. So she decided to leave it in her backpack on her way back. Besides, she knew she wouldn't be able to play anymore anyway; her thoughts were wandering around the similar hair scythe.

The school clock ringed. Her thoughts around her brother moderated and decided to play it tough. She roughly squeezed herself through the school mass as she made the others back off simply by her presence.

She was powerful.

But if they deep down knew her, she was weaker than Dib ever were.

* * *

**A/N: There! Did you like it or did it suck? :3 You know what to do!**

**Oh, and also...**

**Hypnophobia/Somniphobia = Fear of sleep.**

**Fun fact: Jhonen Vasquez is/was suffering this symptom :( Poor guy...**


	3. No One is Safe

**A/N: Yesh, I'm updating! ^^ My school is a pain in the ass so it took a while to write this down. I hope you don't mind. If you do, I'll be in deep dookie...aw well heehee XD**

**Also, I'm a perfectionist, so I'm editing the chapters now and then to my liking. English, is my secondary language so I'm extra hard on myself and I really want you to enjoy my fanfics, and not to feel disturbed by typos and grammar errors.**

**Please, enjoy and review! I love getting reviews, they keep me going.**

* * *

The little moody girl entered through the glass door, a bat in her hold. She pondered if her excuses to be here could also be snappy enough just like the hit of a bat. A little girl wasn't supposed to be here as the grown-ups are reluctant about their reactions to the place itself. Of course, children couldn't really figure out what the patients went through just by walking around the reception, but some kids were known to be quite speedy and mischievous, even so much as to run around to find places to eagerly explore. Luckily that was off the trademark of a little girl like herself, so they had nothing to worry about.

She had figured excuses on her way here, but sooner realized she had no reason to excuse herself and her plans didn't go off. She was here because of family wherefores; the big-headed boy was her brother. Gaz couldn't help but swallow at the thought of confessing such a thing.

But she had to do it in order to know if he was fine. Why she is carrying a bat, you ask? It's simply for self-defense. The clock is 9.00 pm...

It was no long until she was standing by the counter, and since her height was low the woman didn't notice Gaz. So she she stood on her tip-toes and looked up the edge of the counter and asked her matter, in her unique, serious girl tone.

"Excuse me?" Came the question out. It did take a few minutes until the woman caught up, looking up from some magazines she was reading. The woman, or nurse as she was, didn't really look like one. More like a teenager being employed for a summer job. She had dark, obviously dyed hair, with small dark purple strings in it. She didn't have any piercing, but there was small hints that she had it before, by small scars by her lip and eyebrows. She was wearing a light purple ribbon to hold up her hair in a ponytail and she was wearing rings in various colors. She also had a skull as her necklace, sitting firmly around her neck.

Her nameplate shone her name with big capitals: "MELISSA".

This Melissa appeared to be chewing bubblegum and just popped one when she noticed the girl. She put aside the journals, took the nearest wastebasket and spat out the gum in it, before paying real attention to Gaz.

"Hello, little girl. Can I help you?" She said sincerely, with a bright smile.

Gaz ignored that her usual reaction of that comment would be to frown, and instead raised an eyebrow subtly. Her appearance didn't exactly tell people that she seemed socially kind, but what was she to judge? She barely contacted people by herself and didn't quite know how people thought about it all themselves.

"I'm looking for 'Dib Membrane'." Gaz replied monotonously. To Gaz surprise, Melissa seemed a bit confused and lowered her eyebrows as if she had no single clue what Gaz meant. The little girl understood the confusion and sighed before clearing things up.

"The big-headed maniac." Gaz bit her lower-lip, hurting inside to call her brother that. But she had to do it, for obvious reasons.

The woman snapped her fingers. "Ooh! _That _Dib." She punched herself lightly on the forehead to scold her stupidity. "I'm sorry, I'm a very muddled kind of person. I hope you're not offended." Both of them very well knew that was a lie.

She giggled. "Very well. But an adult have to sign these first." Melissa got a paper and passed it to Gaz, sliding off the desk and landing in Gaz hands. She growled quietly. She was hoping not really wanting to tell her Dad. And maybe she didn't have to either, by that she meant that she realized she had forgotten to tell Melissa that she wasn't here to visit him. Only wanting to know about his condition.

"No, actually," Gaz shook her head and looked up at the adult, "I'm not here to visit him. I just want to know about his mental health." And that was the truth, that was the original plan of coming here.

But Melissa seemed a bit reluctant about this, whipping her head around to see if the coast was clear from other people. Deciding it was, she motioned Gaz to come closer as she did so herself, and whispered quietly.

"Look, I'm a rule breaker. So I'm going to let you look at his patient journals if you would like. However, don't read them aloud or anything alike. It'll blow my cover. But only if you answer this question," Melissa took a deep breath as Gaz waited impatiently, even for a few seconds, "How are you related to Dib?"

The little girl decided to be honest, seeing no reason not to be.

"I'm his little sister." Gaz answered. She didn't get why there was a need to ask something as cliché as that, but probably is was some adult thing she would understand when older. All her temporary goal was to know about her brother. Not knowing what he went through was giving her insomnia, and she simply couldn't force herself through it anymore without knowing.

Melissa nodded in approval, with a sincere smile before turning her back to Gaz and rummaged through something underneath the desk. Gaz heard the question, but that was only because her ears were exposed (she was wearing a black ribbon to hold up her hair, in contrast to Melissa's).

"Which one do you want to see? Like, the ones a week ago or those just yesterday?" Melissa inquired while puffing.

Gaz saw no reason to really care which, so she just chose the latter for the heck of it.

"Yesterday." As if Melissa knew, a book landed on the counter with a ear tearing thump, the dust circling it as Gaz instinctively covered her herself and coughed.

"There. I hope it's the right one." Melissa panted, rubbing her hand on the skin of her forehead, her sleeves up her arms.

Gaz took the book began to riffle throughout it. Nothing in particular really caught her interest enough for her to read. In school, when asking questions, she just scrolled through the text only to find what was accurate for an answer. But her gaze got glued on the headline of one page: "METHODS AND TECHNIQUES".

Gaz wasn't really sure if it was appropriate for her, a little girl in the lower grades of school, to be reading this information that was obviously aimed for mature people to see, like some sort of 'hypothesis', something chemists wrote before performing an experiment. But Gaz had been through the adventure of a lot of eerie things, lined up, it was more scary now when she thought back at it. She shook her head, thinking she was becoming paranoid. There was no way she could have soothened up, she had freaking seen 'The Children', and then there was Zim. It was simply incomprehensible she felt timorous knowing what Dib could've endured could be.

So her eyes began to trail through the list of words she could barely make out. Some of them she had heard of, but one made her raise an eyebrow.

"Melissa," Gaz asked the woman, who had started to perfrom bubbles with her gum again, "What the heck is 'Lukovico Technique'? It sounds fictional." The woman's previously closed eyes snapped open as she reached out to the journal and yanked it away from her. Gaz now stood there dumbfounded at the action, holding out her hands that had been cruelly taken out of.

"You know about cats, that curiosity kills them," Melissa said as a matter of fact, "I'm not wanting to be rude, but...pretend you never read that one." She couldn't really speak comprehendly, and Gaz ignored it. Adults pissed her off in all situations. Pfft, she didn't even remember the name of the thing. Was it Ludovico-Lukovido...?

Gaz shrugged. "Now I know a bit how he is. Thank you, Melissa." She spun around to walk out, only to frown deeply when she noticed the storm outside, the rain heavily landing on the ground and an abrupt thunder. Gaz didn't see that she had a choice, so just when she was about to take a step forth again, she heard "Wait!" Melissa appeared beside her with a dark blue umbrella in her hold. "You can borrow this. I can't let you be sick for school tomorrow." The little girl didn't bother to inform that it was saturday tomorrow, Melissa's kindness was stunning her. Without a word, she took the umbrella with gratitude, as the woman smiled, giggling lightly.

The little girl left the building, the umbrella feeling heavy by the water running down the waterproof fabric. She had her hood up just in case. Just as she had skipped halfway through, she saw one of the nearby trees shake violently. Normally, this wouldn't scare her, but weirdly enough, it did make her heart pick up the pace a tad. She hurried past the dark park, wanting to get home, to her warm bed, as quickly as possible.

* * *

Zim's spider appendages was holding onto the branches, and he was feeling sheer terror, plain and simple. As he spied, he hadn't expected the poisonous Earth liquid to fall from the sky. Yeah, well, he did wear a waterproof human hooded sweatshirt just in case, but it didn't change the fact it was still dangerous. Coming to that, he didn't wear his disguise because he saw no reason to hide. No one would be around walking in the night at this time. Well, except one certain person...

Then, expected sooner or later, one single drop landed on his glove, and he began to shriek a little at the pain, so much that he lost control and landed on the ground violently, the robotic spider legs sprawled across the ground just like his limbs, groaning in pain.

"Zim?" He heard a feminine voice, and he knew it could only belong to one person. His spy prey.

He pushed himself up, and gritted his teeth by the pain of the water, then he took note that Gaz was holding an umbrella, and quickly took cover, whether she liked it or not.

Gaz was a bit startled by Zim being so bold and did what he wanted. He held onto the handle to make it cover his side more than hers, hyperventilating, being paranoiac as he averted his eyes side to side.

The girl relaxed as she understood. Water was the only thing Zim was really scared of. As he noticed that she was staring at him, he glared back warning.

"I'm not being near you for some stupid human contact, I'm just in need for your waterproof device." He growled at her, pulling the front of the hood of his further down his forehead. The girl didn't react and just stood there, staring at the alien in question. She didn't quite know what to say. He had been so quick coming here she didn't have the time to think. Now, they stood there like in some stupid romantic movie. She frowned at the thought, she really despised weak-minded movies with such a genre. Scolding herself for thinking such a thing, she asked the most sensible question at the moment.

"What are you doing here? The rain could kill you." She asked, earning a hiss. Both in pain and anger.

"That's also my line!" He spat, even though he knew why she was out, but tried to lie through his teeth. "I know for a fact that human smeets are not supposed to be out during their energy recovering session. So why are you out?" He asked.

Gaz sighed lightly. She decided to answer, knowing how stubborn the alien was she shouldn't mouth back, it probably wouldn't lead them anywhere.

"None of your business. I'm simply out." She said shakily, freezing, tightening the grip on the handle. He didn't buy anything, whatever she said. He knew the truth.

"By 'simply out' I don't suppose you mean stopping by this 'mental hospital' to see if your brother was ok?" He established, his lips curling into an evil smirk. He wasn't supposed to reveal anything, but damn, seeing Gaz of all people with a shocked expression was worth dying for.

Her lower eye lid twitched before her face exposed that she surrendered, turning soft as dropped her gaze down. She really really really didn't want to talk about this, especially not with her brother's arch enemy. The alien would probably take advantage of the situation if he knew where Dib was.

And she was exactly right.

Zim was feeling the bubbles of joy rumble around his squeedlyspootch. Yes, yes, this was perfect! He chuckled quietly, noticing that Gaz looked up at him that angrily, but didn't mind. Now that stupid human pig was out of his way! Now he could finally let his evil plans pull off without Dib's guard up. Deep down he knew that the only thing that could mess up was with his incompetence, but without the boy disturbing him, another plan would less possibly backfire.

Now his insane laughter abandoned his chest, Gaz glaring more and more at the second. Shaking in fury as she questioned one thing, in effort not to scream.

"How...how did...?" She started, but got interrupted in mid-sentence.

"You brainless human-pig. It's the most cliché thing a villian can do." He explained as he pointed to the side of her shirt sleeve. As a question mark, Gaz looked down where he pointed, and as she squinted, she could see a small, small microphone stuck to the upper edge of her shirt. Yanked it off with her index finger and thumb, she glowered at the device, wondering when he got the chance to set it up.

He answered her inner question, obviously: How it got there.

"Yesterday, in the cafeteria." He responded to her thoughts, "I put it on you while you were playing on your entertainment device. Obviously, you're so hooked on that thing that people can flip the bird at you and you still wouldn't notice." The human female blushed at the remark. It was true. If there was anyone who could make her annoyed for real and make her notice, it was Dib. Well, one could count Zim, but it was such a rare case for him so she counted him off.

The alien cackled again.

"Doesn't matter. I know he can't do dookie, and that means I've got the upper hand, and guess what, I want- no, I WILL take advantage of it, and there is NOTHING you can do about it. NOOOOTTTHHHIIIING!" He yelled out, throwing his head backwards and let the evil laughter once again leave his throat. The girl was feeling so angry, and it was building up the more she heard of that annoying sound. She stepped forward and pushed him away; making him fall into a puddle.

To her terror, however, she noticed that he was STILL laughing, even though the liquid was melting his skin. It felt like a horror movie as she watched the alien laugh and laugh, not feeling threatened at all that he could die as the water ran down on him. He must be REALLY happy to have Dib off his back. She couldn't think of a retort to deliver off the bat.

Speaking of bat...

Zim stopped laughing when he noticed that she threw aside the umbrella and held the defense weapon high up, as if to hit him, approaching him with threatening steps. The alien quickly got up onto his feet and ran out in the night, the insane laughter filling the thick night air.

"HAHAHAHA-OW-HAHAHAHA-OWOW-HAHA!" She heard him yell, wincing in pain by every drop that landed on him. The girl shook and sighed sadly as the top of the bat hit the muddy ground, feeling insecure about it all. What was she to do? Now Zim had free access to do what the heck he wanted with Earth, and the human race. That creature was seriously INSANE...

She tried to shake off her thoughts so they didn't go where she think they were heading. Zim was too dumb to take over Earth...right?

She picked up the umbrella, the paranoia engulfing her mind. She was not sure if she was going to be able to sleep tonight. Speaking of that, how DID Dib sleep when he knew that an alien was on the premises to kill everyone?

That would always be a mystery.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you got the 'Clockwork Orange' reference in there xD I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. The thought of them keeping Dib's eyes opened during that technique was far too hilarious for me to ignore. And gasp! Now Zim's gonna put his EVUL plans into actions, who will stop him? DIB- I mean, GAZ TO THE RESCUE...maybe?**

**Also, I named my OC 'Melissa'...get it? :3**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	4. Years of Studyinggone?

**A/N: I read your reviews intently, because I need it as fuel. I need all the criticism I can get. A review made me make a different direction, the one by Zim'sMostLoyalServant. You said things were going a bit too fast. And you know what; you're right. So I edited the last part in the previous chapter, and I suggest you read it before reading this one. I want my fanfic to be awesomesauce, because I've said that I'm a perfectionist! ^^**

**As for thegracefulsister's review, yes, their appearances will be a little bit affected, especially Dib's ;)**

**Enjoy the chapter. I have a bit of a pressure right now so I will be updating slowly, especially with English as my second language. Bear with me please? :)**

**Also, haven't spellchecked. Will later on...also, they're around 13, 14 in this fanfic, just wanted to age them up a little (forgot to mention it to you...)  
**

* * *

"Out!" She heard her brother; short, but sounded so hard in that small word.

Gaz was too busy playing on her dear GameSlave to even look up, yet her curiosity was filling up inside. Despite Dib's returning from the hospital a few days ago, she maintained her usual regular basis, of playing on her console, eat pizza and flat-out ignore her brother.

Soon she realized that was not what she really wanted.

It was not important. Since he arrived 2 days back she hadn't been able to pay attention to his behavior and doings, giving her constant homework (not to mention the detention to 1500 hours because she couldn't rip her eyes of the screen of her game), wanting to slack off afterwards and went out to Bloaty's. All this had happened the whole weekend, today being Sunday.

She went completely against her own rules as she turned her head around to cast a glance in her brother's direction. It was actually the first time seeing him for a while, and now was the first time she too took note of his different clothing. Instead of his trademark blank-smiley t-shirt and dark trench coat, he was now wearing a light blue sweater shirt with a black hood. He still had the scythe shaped hair, but his hairdo was rounded up with bangs hanging over his forehead loosely, probably had combed it on some occasion during the weekend. In short, he looked really weird, but partly it looked quite good.

Not that she would care about his looks. Not that they were proving anything different in his behavior.

...that was what she kept telling herself. Gaz wondered if it was true. Either way, she didn't want to keep pretending being apathetic. She didn't have to.

She was standing before her own path. It was time to move herself out of the way.

She did.

Gaz closed her console, gently placing it on the couch and walked over to her brother. He seemed to be going back and forth, from his bedroom to outside, a few number of boxes filled with books, magazines; in general readable stuff. At first she wanted to go back, but a quick chain of thoughts developed, making her step stop in it's movement.

What if he was throwing his paranormal studies away? What if he was giving up his activities? A swallow happened in her throat. If he was getting rid of it all...would it mean that there was no proof of Zim's existence as well as everything else he had pursued? For a moment she felt unfamiliar with the feeling her brother had gone mad. Not mad of how their dad and everyone else would have put it; authentic madness. The opposite of what everyone else would in point of fact define "mad". They shouldn't really be labeled as "sane", because it sounded hypocritical when Dib was the only sane person around; something they denied. Who knew, maybe they lied to themselves or they were just flat-out stupid.

Anyhow, did it signify that Zim was free to conquer Earth, without any obstacles?

These questions were useless, of course she knew the answer. EARTH WAS SCREWED.

That...that couldn't happen, she found herself thinking. It could bound to happen, if she wasn't being swift enough. She realized herself agreeing to her ignorance and carelessness, deciding for wanting to do something about this. Her self-absorbing had not been speculating around Zim's scheming and possible onsets. The truth hurt, but now when she thought deeper, she was a selfish little brat.

Dib was considerate. Even though he was most of the time wrongly accusing random people for being werewolves, vampires or whatever, he didn't mean any harm, he just wanted to warn people and wanted them to be careful.

She wasn't any better. A sign escaped her slightly parted lips, which had stayed like that while quietly meditating. A bit determined to make up to her former habits, she still deliberated in her silence beforehand.

Then she did it. Her feet picked up a pace and she rushed out the door, feeling a little panicked seeing her sibling holding a box and was about to throw it away in the trashing bin.

She ran up to him and grabbed the edge of the box with a definiteness she never knew she possessed. It must have dug up from it's prison.

The expected reaction came off, of Dib turning towards her with a bewildered expression. His grip softened but his look stayed on.

"Gaz, what are you doing? What?" Gaz knew that he would be utterly confused, but she really didn't want to reveal anything from her decisions...yet. So she played it bossy, that would be enough for him to obey without asking.

"Do not throw that away." She glared, tightening her grip on the cardboard.

"What-" She did a quick shake to stop himself from finishing his question.

"You heard me."

It must have affected Dib, or else he wouldn't have stopped in his tracks and took a couple of steps backwards. It left him to ponder if she meant that he should stop with his cleaning, or if it was the box she was particularly interested in. He decided the first one to be tempting since he was tired out from all the medication and the treatment at the hospital. So he went inside, suddenly wanting a glass of water.

Ignoring her brother dismissing, she decided to bring the box in again, Dib's effort suddenly worth vacuum, but if she cared. His studies were effective, when would he realize that? Wait, that sounded the wrong way to put it. She stopped her thoughts from processing because they were beating a dead horse.

Her faint guess of Dib's sudden twist in personality could be of his treatment, or rather; what he realized during the treatment. That he just needed space to think it all over. If it was worth the effort. If he felt it was worth it. If he felt the passion of his hobbies. During childhood, especially during the toddlerhood, she had been observing. As much as she attempted to call him pathetic or something alike it never stopped her from observing his every move and let her gaze stay still upon him as he ran off on escapades. It was somewhat calming. It was her calming ritual. Gaz had felt a ball of jealousy growing in the pit of her stomach; envying Dib's passionate individual. Of course, he must have genetically received it through their father, but something admirable about Dib, was that he chose his own way. He never cared if people thought he was insane, he did what he wished and enjoyed doing it, not hiding like a yellow-bellied chicken behind his dad trying to pronounce every element and their abilities on the periodic table, a sort of methapor for licking his feet.

One of the endless reasons she looked upon him in secret. He was her role model. She so badly wanted to be as confident and careless as he was, but she was scared, it was figured long ago. What did she mention before? Ah, yes, observing. When she meant observing she meant _observing._ Like, every detail and such. That includes all the children picking on him, calling him names and alike. Sometimes he got his head bash in, though she would give them that, it was a rare occasion. But it didn't meant in never happened. It had; and a few seconds of those situations had cut down in his mental flesh. You could use the word scar; but it didn't seem right here.

Now she had carried the box to her room, and was going to bring up the rest later. As she was browsing, she grew quite fond of one notebook, probably something he had jot down during class while he had been regarding the alien actively, and she could guess also with awe. He was constantly mentioning the wonder of Zim's green skin, his claws, his infinite deep magenta eyes (pardon, he was mentioning these quite much, makes you question his way of swinging a bit) but one stood out, his antennae. Dib's sort journal notes had consisted of how fascinated he was of the movements they made, what kind of emotions they could represent occasionally and that they randomly twitched, probably from sudden hearing of long quietude.

A list was seen before her when she turned the leaf. It looked like quick notes of Zim's weaknesses and what would probably work.

_* Water - Disintegrates in contact with H2O liquid. Splash buckets of water at target, kick puddle water etcetera..._

_* PAK - Dies within 10 minutes if unattached to Irken spine. Unknown annex mechanism. Plausible advanced alien technology. _(Gaz thought 'duh!' at this one)

_* Tolerant to lice, paste and paint._

A short anectode lower down the list made eyebrow raising cross her face.

"Huh", she muttered to herself, "Wonder when he got the chance to examine that." Thinking it was enough studying Zim's foibles, she placed away the notebook in the box and did the same with it, hiding it beneath her bed in case Dib would try to do anything stupid with his former belongings. She descended downstairs to prepare dinner. Now, it was not something she really liked to do, but it was her's and Dib's "to-do-list" their dad had set up for them. Plus, she didn't think she could stand another night of endless scolding of how much they should treat older people with respect, especially parents. Gaz had been quick with figuring out that he made up excuses for skipping taking responsibility for the family, but she chose to stay obedient, and so did Dib.

Besides, even though it was not her favorite hobby, she had long grown out the skill of burning the ingredients and had become quite professional at it, and even concluded that not cooking would waste her talent.

She put the chicken in the oven and her eyes absently trailed to the window, thinking of Zim and was wildly guessing, even itching inside, what he was up to. He was incompetent, but she still couldn't help but worry. He actually HAD almost succeeded a few times, if it hadn't been for Dib's interruption and standing as a hero for the day. Well...standing as a hero for himself; nobody else cared and most of the time didn't even know they were in danger.

The alien was not stupid, she knew that. He was just incompetent, slow and power-mad. It could sum up as stupid in your point of view, but to her summed up as...yeah, what?

Summed up as Zim, perhaps?

The sky was taking a darker color the more she looked out. It was amazing how the hue could shift colors without the eyes actually picking up the changing. And the colors it could have! Pink, yellow, orange, purple, you name it. In some cases, even green, put it was rare.

The beeping made her return to reality and made a sigh, before bending down and taking out the bird. It was not gourmet, but it was satisfactory. Enough in her book. She was never really picky with food actually, with exception of pizza, where she was finicky about the mushrooms, mozarella and all a pizza could hold. It was her all-time favorite food and she had to be passionate about something.

Just like Dib was...is?..with his hobbies...maybe?

Biting her lip was becoming a habit. She disregarded to thought with a shake of the head and shouted to Dib that it was dinner.

Dad was probably gone until midnight, and the chicken would have probably cooled of by the late hour he would be home. Not that she minded.

Her mind was too engrossed on how Zim was scheming his plans to even think of that.

That night, the sleep wasn't sleeping with her.

It had become a subconscious rule.

* * *

**A/N: Sucky ending for a chapter is sucky. I'm getting sick of writing about their insomnia but that's what I would expect happening with an alien on the premises especially with Gaz's insecurities. Seriously, I've rarely seen Dib with insomnia/hypnophobia on the show, and that's something you would expect :/ Ah well, the show would be annoying that way anyhow.**

**I beg you, review! I read reread them to see what I can do better, and they motivate me to write more. The reviews make me know if you are actually reading. You don't have to review, but I'm just saying that it makes me WANT to write more, and not just forcing myself to. And I get better if you criticize, so bring it on!**


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